Hi all, I am new here and fairly new to RV'ing. My wife and I are contemplating an inexpensive RV purchase. I recently looked at a '78 Empress 26 ft on a GMC 454 chassis. It has 56,000 miles on it. It was in fairly good shape for something this old. When I took a look underneath I saw new exhaust and clean. Doesn't look like its ever been on a wet or dirty road. The motor sounded extremely tight, like it had barely any miles on it. Everything works, Roof air, Genny, New furnace, Ect.
The Bad: Roof needs to be resealed around the roof and the inner roof it sagging around the leak. I could prolly get this thing for less than $4000 as the owner just wants it gone.
My question is how much work is it to fix a roof leak and reseal the seams and what kind of reliability and fuel economy can I expect from a '78 454 in good shape?

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HI Tom and Welcome to the forum!
A major roof leak would be a deal breaker for me, but if you are handy and not afraid to do all the work yourself by all means go ahead. The thing that would concern me is, how long has it been leaking, how much unseen damage is there, and has it also damaged the walls and sub-floors.
As for fuel economy, not so good. Back then there was no overdrive and most chassis were built very close to their max GVWR. 5-6 MPG on a good day.
Remember, it's a buyers market. For every used coach you see that looks ok there are probably 10 fold more that are in better shape.